


Absolute Mess

by DrummerFromDownUnder



Category: Nowhere Boys (TV)
Genre: AU where they never went missing, And Felix dealt with his issues through music, M/M, Minor Ellen O'Donnell/Mia, Minor Jake Riles/Andy Lau
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-31 05:13:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18584491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrummerFromDownUnder/pseuds/DrummerFromDownUnder
Summary: Okay, so, it turns out that Sam can’t just put on the ‘Conte charm™’ with Felix. He completely forgot that when he genuinely likes someone, he’s an absolute mess. He was terrible when he first started talking to Mia when they were in year 9, he kept stuttering and falling over. And somehow, Felix made him even more of a mess.Sam Conte had a crush on Felix Ferne back in high school. Turns out, Felix is coming back as an opening act on an Australian tour and Sam is not so great with feelings.





	Absolute Mess

Ellen O’Donnell was walking out of Bremin High after a long day of work on Friday afternoon when her phone rang. Looking at the caller I.D., she immediately picked up. “Oscar’s fine.”

“Wha- No ‘ _Hi, Felix. How’s the tour going? You freezing your butt off in Canada?’_ Sheesh.”

Ellen sighed, smiling. “Yeah, yeah, all of that shit too.”

“And I know Oscar’s fine, I called him before.”

“Okay, so, what’s up? You usually let me know when you’re gonna call.”

“Yeah, but I was too excited to wait.”

“Okay…”

“I just found out that the next tour I’m opening for is in Australia. Ellen, I’m coming home!”

Ellen stopped in front of her car. “Felix, you better not be joking…”

“Already called mum and dad to make sure they’ve left my room exactly how it was.”

-/-/-/-/-

Ellen unlocked the door and walked inside, smiling to herself.  She walked into the kitchen where she found her girlfriend, Mia and Sam, Mia’s ex-boyfriend turned friend. “Hey.” She said, passing Mia on her way over to the kettle and kissing her on the cheek.

“Hi babe, you seem happy.”

Sam nodded. “Yeah, bit weird.”

Ellen glared at him.

“In a good way.” Sam said, shrinking back.

“A friend of mine called me before, turns out he’s coming back home for a bit.”

“Friend from school?” Mia asked.

“Yeah, you guys might remember him. Felix Ferne?”

A devilish smile appeared on Mia’s face. “Yeah, I remember him.” She turned to Sam who was frozen and slightly pink in the face. “Sam? Do _you_ remember him?”

Sam snapped out of it and shook his head. “Uh, no. Don’t remember any Felix Ferne.”

Mia crossed her arms, smirking. “You sure? Because I seem to remember you blabbering on about him after he complimented an art project you did back in Year 10.”

Flushing a slightly darker pink, Sam glared at his ex. “Nope. Don’t remember that.”

Mia reached over, grabbing Sam’s hat and putting it on her head. _‘Mia, he said my art was interesting and that he liked the colour choices I made. Mia, he plays guitar. Mia, he can also SING. Mia, have you noticed how tall he is? Holy shit, I wanna die!’_

Sam snatched his hat back and huffed. “I don’t sound like that.” He muttered.

Ellen looked between the two, her gaze moving back and forth before stopping on Sam. “So, you have a crush on my best friend since kindy?”

“ _Had._ I don’t anymore. I haven’t seen him since we left school.”

“‘cause he’s been busy recording music and being an opening act on several tours. Which is why he’s coming back, next band he open’s for is doing an Australian tour and once it’s done, he’s staying in Bremin for a while.”

Sam’s head snapped up. “Really?” Realizing how obvious he was being, Sam tried to tone it down a little. “That’s… cool.”

-/-/-/-/-

The next day, Sam caught up with his best mate, Jake and Jake’s boyfriend, Andy.  “So, do either of you guys remember Felix Ferne, back in high school?” He asked.

“Remember him? I basically have him imprinted in my _mind_ because of you!” Jake answered as he reached over to grab Sam’s hat and make fun of the shorter boy.

“Oi, no. Mia already did that to me yesterday, _thank you_. Anyway, he called Ellen and told her that he’s coming back home for a bit.”

“Is he performing for a bit and then coming back or is he just coming back home?” Andy asked.

Sam and Jake both looked at him confused; Sam hadn’t mentioned what Felix had been up to since school.

Andy shrugged. “What? I don’t mind his music.”

-/-/-/-/-

A few months later, Ellen organized the lot of them to travel to Melbourne to see Felix perform. They were staying in a hotel for a night with Ellen and Mia sleeping in one room, Jake and Andy sleeping in another and Sam spending the night on a pull-out couch.

“So, Sam, you excited to see your _boyfriend_?” Jake asked jokingly as they left the hotel.

Sam rolled his eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend. Hell, he probably doesn’t even remember I exist! And it’s not like we’re gonna bump into him or anything.”

Ellen turned around to the boys behind her. “You do know that we’re meeting up with him after the show, right?”

Sam stopped. “What?”

“He’s my best friend and I haven’t seen him in months! Of _course,_ we’re gonna hang out with him.”

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, _fuck_. Nope, I can’t do this. Nope, no. No.” Sam said turning around to head back.

Jake grabbed him by the shoulders, stopping the shorter boy in his tracks. “Yes, you can, mate. It’ll be easy. Once he starts talking to you, you just put on the ‘Conte charm™’ and he’ll be putty in your hands.”

-/-/-/-/-

Okay, so, it turns out that Sam can’t just put on the ‘Conte charm™’ with Felix. He completely forgot that when he genuinely likes someone, he’s an absolute mess. He was terrible when he first started talking to Mia when they were in year 9, he kept stuttering and falling over. And somehow, Felix made him even more of a mess. He managed to not talk to or even interact with Felix until the group got back to the hotel.

“Remember when we were in year 8 and you were writing all those terrible songs?” Ellen asked.

Felix put his hand to his chest, faking a hurt look on his face. “You said they were good.” He chuckled. “Nah, they _were_ pretty shit, hopefully I’ve improved my song writing skills.”

“Honestly, Felix, it’s not my type of music, but you’re incredibly talented. Wouldn’t you say so, Sam?” Mia decided that it was time to push Sam into the conversation. It might’ve also been a bit fun for her to watch her friend squirm.

Sam felt his face flush as he glared at Mia and turned to Felix who was already looking at him. “Uh, yeah, incredibly talented, uh huh.” Nodding his head, Sam agreed, wanting nothing more than to curl up into a ball and disappear. “Excuse me for a second.” He said, standing up and heading to the bathroom.

Closing the door behind him, Sam gripped the bathroom counter, staring at his reflection in the mirror. Sighing, he let go of the counter, putting his head in is hands and slid onto the floor, leaning against the wall. “Ugh, I’m such a fuckin’ mess.” He muttered to himself.

“Yeah, you are.” Jake said as he closed the bathroom door behind him, sliding down next to Sam. “What’s going on, Sam?”

“I just…” Sam started. He looked down to the floor, breathing in and out a few times to help himself chill out. “I’m not good with the whole ‘liking people’ thing. You know, acting on it and stuff. I freak out and my mouth clamps shut, or I never stop talking and it’s a complete and utter disaster. Every. Single. Time.”

“I’ve seen you flirt with people though…”

“Yeah, but that’s me just being a cocky little shit. I can’t actually flirt to save my life when I like someone.”

Jake stood up and held out his hand. “Look, just be yourself.” He said as Sam grabbed his hand and pulled himself up. “Your goofy, dopey and kinda annoying self.” He finished off, smirking.

Sam glared. “ _Thanks_.”

Jake tapped his hand on Sam’s left shoulder twice. “You’re welcome. Now get out of here, some of us actually need to go to the bathroom.”

-/-/-/-/-

Walking back into the lounge area of the hotel room, Sam grabbed himself a coke and sat down where he was sitting before. They all turned to look at him, but he decided to act like nothing happened. “So, what’d I miss?” He asked, looking around.

“Uh, not much really, we were just talking about what were all doing with our lives at the moment.” Andy replied.

 _‘Great. My favourite topic’_ Sam thought to himself, sarcastically.

“What do you do Sam?” Felix asked.

“Um,” Sam looked down at the can of soft drink in his hand, hoping that he’d be able to actually hold a conversation with the taller boy if he avoided eye contact. “I have a casual job at the local daycare. Mostly just taking care of toddlers and little kids and keeping them entertained. But I also do art and skateboarding on the side.”

“So, you still draw? I remember that piece you did back in year 10 that got hung up in the corridor for over a year. It was amazing.”

Sam looked up for a second, meeting Felix’s gaze and blushed. “I-it really wasn’t that great.”

Felix tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. “Are you insane? When I first saw it, I thought it was a year 12 art piece.”

Mia smiled, seeing a way to get to get the ball really moving between the two boys. “You know, Felix, Sam keeps all of his sketch books. Maybe you could look through them when you come back to Bremin.”

“Seriously?” Felix asked, looking at Sam.

“Um, I dunno. There’s not much to see really…” Sam trailed off, putting a hand on the back of his neck.

“C’mon Sam, don’t be so modest. He’s even got an Instagram for his art, if you want to check that out.”

“Mia, no.”

“Sam,” Felix said, gaining the smaller boy’s attention. “I’m sure that your art is great.” He said, smiling.

Sam blushed, looking back at the ground as Mia brought up his art Instagram on her phone.

Felix chuckled. “ _Sk8er_Boi_97_Art_ , nice user name you’ve got there.”

Sam put his head in his hands. “I was thirteen! Leave me alone!”

Jake came up and looked over Felix’s shoulder. “My favourite is the one he did of this old, rickety shack we used to hang out at.”

Felix tapped on the screen and analysis a picture before turning the phone towards Sam. “I really like this one.” He said, talking about a coloured drawing of a bonfire Sam did when he, Jake and Andy went camping a little time after they graduated high school.

Ellen rolled her eyes. “Of course, you do.” She turned her attention to Sam. “He’s always had a thing about fire, ever since we were little kids.”

“Sam’s the same, but with air.” Mia added.

“Air?” Felix asked him.

Sam shrugged, becoming a bit more comfortable over time. “I was really into Avatar: The Last Airbender as a kid.”

Felix smiled. “Cute.”

-/-/-/-/-

About a month later, Felix arrived back in Bremin. While hanging out at Ellen’s, Mia had grabbed and brought over a bunch of Sam’s old sketchbooks that she was able to get a hold of.

When flicking through the third sketchbook, Felix stopped on a page that had several drawings of different types of plants and a drawing of a boy with shaggy black and partly red hair, wearing black skinny jeans and Doc Martins, sitting on a log, looking down towards the ground.

“Uh, Mia? Could you maybe text Sam to come here? I want to ask about some drawings.”

“Sure.” Mia nodded. Once she had texted Sam, she looked over to the page Felix had stopped on. “Oh, yeah, that was one of his best."

-/-/-/-/-

Twenty or so minutes later, Sam arrived and walked into the kitchen, stopping when he saw Felix sitting at the bench.

“So, um,” Felix started, grabbing the sketchbook and standing up. “am I imagining this or is this a drawing of me?” He asked, walking over to Sam and showing the shorter boy the drawing.

“Oh, uh,” Sam went to take to sketchbook from Felix, but the taller boy held onto it.

“I’m not weirded out or anything, I just want to know why.” Felix added, knowing that Sam wasn’t super talkative around him.

Sam walked over to the bench and sat down on one of the stools around it. “Okay, so, um, back when we were in high school, I kinda, sorta had a bit of a crush… on you…” He started, looking down to the tiled floor. “And when I have a crush, I tend to get… inspired? _Nope_. That sounds creepy. I have a habit of drawing things that I think about often, and back in year 10… you were one of those things….”

Felix didn’t respond at first. He looked at the drawing and then over to Sam, who was still staring at the ground, looking like he wanted it to swallow him whole. “I was right, you’re amazing at drawing.”

Sam wouldn’t look at him, just continued to look at the floor. “I’m really not.”

“You are though, hell, it’s one of the reasons I liked you back in high school.”

Sam looked up at the taller boy, confused. “You liked me?”

Felix nodded. “Yeah, I did.” He looked over at Sam and smiled softly. “Still do, if I’m being honest.”

“Seriously?” Sam asked as he raised and eyebrow. “Why would you do that to yourself, dude?”

Felix chucked. “Well, I don’t really get a say in who I like, ya know? My feelings do that for me.”

“I mean, yeah, but-“ Sam was cut off by a quick pressure to his lips.

“Sorry, I’m kinda awkward when it comes to the whole ‘liking people’ thing.” Felix said, snapping Sam back into reality.

“You’re awkward?” Sam asked. “I basically had a panic attack when I talked to you at the hotel and got advice from Jake, that’s awkward.”


End file.
